Modern computer-based multimedia applications, such as video, graphics and audio processing, may include computationally intensive data processing. The processing burden may be distributed among other devices, such as, programmable logic devices coupled to a computing system.
Typically, after a system reset, programmable logic devices have to be configured before they can be utilized in the system. Vendor-specific configuration read-only memory (PROMs) may be required to configure/program the programmable logic devices, for example, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). For example, manufacturers of FPGAs produce and sell configuration PROMs which are designed specifically for programming the FPGAs. The cost of these PROMs has become another burden to many computer system manufacturers who use FPGAs in their products.